By: Tanya Jolliffe, SparkPeople Blogger
12/17/2009 1:11 PM   :  56 comments   :  12,407 Views

See More: nutrition, travel,

Surveys indicate that the majority of the American public wants to know the nutritional information for the food they eat. This is also true when it comes to flying the friendly skies.

Recently, an article about how U.S. airlines rate on the nutrition scale, revealed the 2009 DietDetective.com airline survey results. The survey found that American Airlines was "most improved" over previous studies because of some sensible substitutions that were made. Continental took the top food spot because they offer free meals that are lower in calories, nutrient rich and provide variety.

Here is some highlight information for some of the more common airlines to help you make nutrient wise choices while traveling by air this holiday season as identified by the Annual Airline Snacking and Onboard Food Survey.

Continental Airlines - Provides a variety of options free of additional charges. If you are traveling over breakfast, instead of the calorie dense muffin (290 calories) select a bowl of cereal such as Total (70 calories) or Honey Nut Cheerios (110 calories) with 2 percent milk (61 calories/4 oz serving) and a banana (90 calories).

On a short flight over lunch or dinner, A Turkey (135 calories) or Ham (198 calories) Petite Cold Sandwich with lite mayonnaise (35 calories) and mustard (3 calories) with baby carrots (15 calories) is a great choice. Selecting pretzels (45 calories) as a snack option is a healthy choice as well as asking for plenty of water whenever beverages are offered to help you stay hydrated while in the air.

If you are on a longer trip that has you in the air for longer than 3 hours, you have the option of a sandwich, salad, and fun-size candy bar. Here are several good choices: Aldo's enchilada Chicken Wrap (180 calories), Buddy's Jennie-O Turkey Club (250 calories), Stefano's Turkey Dog (270 calories), or Stefano's Chicken Wrap (290 calories).Select a Naturally Fresh salad (10 calories) with either Lite Ranch (80 calories) or Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinaigrette (80 calories) dressing. For your sweet treat at the end of your meal, a Hershey's bar (67 calories), Kit Kat (80 calories) or Twix cookie bar (80 calories) will be your lowest calories choices.

American Airlines - Showing improvement in their meal and snack options but with a charge of $3-$10 for meals, travelers have to be aware when trying to maximize their nutrition choices.

It is important to know that if you are flying over breakfast time and are offered the Breakfast Café snack box (480 calories) it is a nutrient wise offering for the calories. The typical breakfast box includes Breyers YoCrunch strawberry yogurt (190 calories), Quaker Oatmeal Express - Golden Brown Sugar (200 calories) and a box of Sun-Maid Raisins (90 calories). When it comes to the snacks that are offered, being nutrient wise is key. Of course you would probably skip the Saile & Sabga Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookie (420 calories) or the Lay's Stax Potato Crisps (826 calories) because you know that while they will be delicious, they are also mostly empty calories. While you are able to select several options that are nutrient rich, they may also be at a cost of half your recommended daily caloric intake. The Premium Nut Blend (706 calories) would be great to share with a traveling companion instead of having the entire serving by yourself, which can cut the calorie damage in half. The other nutrient rich choice is the Cheese & Cracker Snack Tray (430 calories) containing two Pepperidge Farm two-cracker packs (95 calories), .75 ounces of cheese (75 calories), one-once box of raisins (90 calories) and a one-ounce bag of mixed nuts (170 calories), any of which can be saved for later to spread the snack out throughout your travels.

If you are on a longer flight, Boston Market sandwiches, salads and chips are made available. It would be best to pass on the Boston Market Beef Brisket Grinder and chips (820 calories) which is the highest calorie option offered. The Boston Market Chicken Carver sandwich with chips (630 calories) is an ok choice but the Boston Market Chicken Caesar Salad with SunChips and dressing (470 calories) is the best choice, especially if you use the dressing sparingly.

United Airlines - Provides the best variety but unfortunately with only limited options that maximize nutrition. When traveling on long flights over five hours there are snack box, fresh salad and sandwich choices but unfortunately the sandwiches and salad choices are less health-conscious than the snack box options. When traveling on a longer flight over breakfast, be careful with options like the Continental breakfast (613 calories), Yogurt parfait (310 calories), Cinnamon muffin (470 calories), or the Blueberry muffin (440 calories). While they seem like they would be a lower calorie, lower fat choices, since they are so carbohydrate heavy, you may find you are hungry soon after breakfast and are in need of a late morning snack. The Ham & Swiss croissant (338 calories) might be a little higher in fat than you like but it does supply a high protein breakfast sandwich that will stick with you and may allow you to skip the late morning snack. If you decide to go with the Continental breakfast, use the strawberry jam (30 calories) on your French toast bagel (180 calories) with the strawberry yogurt (90 calories) and skip the cream cheese (313 calories) all together. By skipping the cream cheese, you create a nutrient rich breakfast option that is only 300 calories.

When on a flight longer than two hours, there are several nutrient rich snack box options. Consider the Organic (436 calories) snack box containing cheese crackers (130 calories), granola (130 calories), apple chips (43 calories), fruit stick (68 calories) and a chocolate (65 calories) treat or the Active snack box (634 calories) which includes almonds (260 calories), tortilla chips (180 calories), a turkey stick (50 calories), salsa (20 calories), raisins (44 calories) and a Thinkfruit bar (80 calories). Other choices such as the Luxe (607 calories) snack box with multigrain chips (210 calories), olives (40 calories), crackers (35 calories), cheese spread (79 calories), Grissini (70 calories), chocolate-covered pretzels (110 calories) and hummus (63 calories) or the Classic (616 calories) with kettle chips (150 calories), salami (80 calories), Oreos (100 calories), cheddar spread (70 calories), Goldfish (70 calories), crackers (70 calories) and jelly beans (46 calories) are not as nutrient rich in their offerings.

When you are on shorter flights and offered a simple snack, steer clear of the Lay's Stax potato crisps (900 calories), Toblerone chocolate bar (510 calories) and the Walkers shortbread cookies (540 calories) since they provide mostly empty calories. Instead, select the Fisher salty nut mix (630 calories) to share with a travel companion or the Clif Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Bar (240 calories) or the Odwalla Banana Nut Nutritional bar (240 calories).

Choices for lunch and dinner on flights longer than three and a half hours include a variety of salads and sandwiches. The more nutrient rich choices include the spinach salad (553 calories) or the assorted cheese tray (570 calories). Another of the more nutrient rich choices would be the roast beef sandwich with chips (536 calories) or the chicken Caesar salad (505 calories). The Thai chicken wrap with chips (672 calories) and the turkey sandwich with chips (860 calories) would probably be choices to reserve for the times when there is no other choice and leaving the chips and scraping off the mayo will help reduce the calorie and fat damage as well.

Jet Blue - Provides great portion-control with their individually packaged snack which are all under 170 calories. There also continues to be small improvements with the no additional charge meals as well.

While all the snack choices are below 170 calories per pre-portioned serving, some are more nutrient rich than others are. While the all nuts jumbo cashew halves (170 calories for a 1-ounce serving) is the highest calorie choice, it also provides the most nutrition for the caloric cost. Several of the other more nutrient rich choices would include the fiber gourmet cheese snacks (50 calories), Chifles plantain chips (105 calories), Stauffer's original animal crackers (100 calories) or the Stella D'Oro breakfast treats (100 calories for one cookie). Lowest on the list in the nutrition benefit for the calories would include the Chocobillys chocolate cookies (140 calories), Doritos munchies mix (140 calories) and the Terra Blues potato chips (130 calories).

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines - These airlines do better with more nutrient rich meals than they do with their snacks. There is still plenty of room for improvement especially when they do not have nutritional information available for the meals available at an additional cost of $3-$10 per meal.

When planning for shorter flights, save a little time and pick up a healthier snack option from the airport to take with you when you board. The healthiest snack choice is the Planters fruit & nut trail mix (840 calories) but at a big calorie cost. Other snack choices provide little nutrition but a slightly lower calorie cost from Pringles (450 calories) or peanut M&M's (840 calories). For flights longer than an hour and a half, you can select one of two additional snack boxes. The Flight Delights (530 calories) would be your best option and includes pita chips (130 calories), hummus (63 calories), apricots (70 calories), almonds (100 calories), as well as a Clif bar (100 calories) and a Toblerone mini (67 calories). The other choice is the Travel Treats (670 calories) which includes kettle chips (150 calories), salami (110 calories), white cheddar (50 calories), Gouda (50 calories), Late July crackers (90 calories), Craisins (100 calories) and Milano cookies (120 calories).

US Airways - There is room for a nutrition overhaul for overall choices although there a few more nutrient rich choices especially in snack boxes. Although they are similar to United Airlines, they are not when it comes to their snack boxes especially with the $3-$7 additional charge.

Both snack and meal box choices offer some nutrient rich items along with others that are not as much. Choices include the salami and cheese box (752 calories) with Stoned Classics tortilla chips (180 calories), Emerald trail mix (260 calories), Venus crackers (60 calories), Gouda cheese (76 calories), Ortega salsa (10 calories), Pepperidge Farm cookies (100 calories) and Toblerone (66 calories) or the chicken salad box (825 calories) with chicken salad (140 calories), Miltons multi-grain crackers (100 calories), McDuffies shortbread cookies (240 calories), Sunsweet dried apricots (70 calories), Snackwave trail mix (205 calories) and Belle Cre'me cheese spread (70 calories).

Snack bite choices are varied with Blue Diamond almonds (840 calories) provide the most nutrition but at a high calorie cost. Planters daybreak blend apple cinnamon trail mix (560 calories) is another nutrient rich choice as well as the Quaker oatmeal express golden brown sugar (200 calories). The Maruchan instant lunch – chicken flavor (290 calories) is a possibility and would rate above Pringles (480 calories), Mini Oreas (530 calories) or Twizzlers (525 calories).

Southwest Airlines - Offer free options but unfortunately they fall to the bottom of the nutritionally rich scale for all the airlines reviewed. For short flights, you can choose from honey peanuts (70 calories), dry-roasted peanuts (70 calories) or pretzels (50 calories) which are all good options. On longer flights you can choose from Nabisco airplane cookies (120 calories), Ritz cheese sandwich crackers (200 calories) or Ritz toasted chips (100 calories).

What tips do you follow to eat smart when you travel?